hemingway
New member
Hi all,
Hope everyone is well. I am 6 months pregnant with our first child. Hemingway (2 years old) has always loved kids and has spent time around them but does not know how to play gently with them or be gentle around them. If they have a frisbee, he will try to steal it from them with his big toothy mouth and if he gets the urge, he has tackled one or two of them from time to time for fun. Today in a split second he body checked my 2 year old nephew and had him down on the ground. We'd had him on leash and were showing him how to be gentle all day. And then five minutes into trying off leash time he did that. We stay on top of him and correct/reprimand him when he acts out but his nature seems to be very boisterous and rough with them- none of that "gentle newfie nature" I've always heard so much about when it comes to them with children. It doesn't seem to be coming to him naturally. Yet, anyway. I'm just looking for some advice on how to better acclimate him to children because what we've been trying doesn't seem to work and I don't believe having him on leash is helping either. In fact, I think it builds up the anticipation so that we he is "free" he is even more excitable.
Will it just take time being around a baby/toddler 24/7 for him to learn? He just wants to wrestle all the time with everything and doesn't know the difference between a 2 year old human and a doggy play friend.
Any advice you can pass on would be very much appreciated.
Thank you!
Hope everyone is well. I am 6 months pregnant with our first child. Hemingway (2 years old) has always loved kids and has spent time around them but does not know how to play gently with them or be gentle around them. If they have a frisbee, he will try to steal it from them with his big toothy mouth and if he gets the urge, he has tackled one or two of them from time to time for fun. Today in a split second he body checked my 2 year old nephew and had him down on the ground. We'd had him on leash and were showing him how to be gentle all day. And then five minutes into trying off leash time he did that. We stay on top of him and correct/reprimand him when he acts out but his nature seems to be very boisterous and rough with them- none of that "gentle newfie nature" I've always heard so much about when it comes to them with children. It doesn't seem to be coming to him naturally. Yet, anyway. I'm just looking for some advice on how to better acclimate him to children because what we've been trying doesn't seem to work and I don't believe having him on leash is helping either. In fact, I think it builds up the anticipation so that we he is "free" he is even more excitable.
Will it just take time being around a baby/toddler 24/7 for him to learn? He just wants to wrestle all the time with everything and doesn't know the difference between a 2 year old human and a doggy play friend.
Any advice you can pass on would be very much appreciated.
Thank you!